Pippa Middleton, who is known mostly for her famous sister and brother in law,  is making  the papers again with the deal she just made for her new recipe book. The Duchesses’ sister has said that one-on-one interviews to promote the book were not going to happen. You can read more about Pippa and her book in Mike Collett-White’s “Pippa Middleton Book Deal Worth Some $640,000.” The article is published on The Christan Science Monitor site.

A lot of books are released every week. Readers often look forward to these set dates, especially if it’s from their favorite authors. We talk about new books, movie tie-ins, and how modern literature has changed in more ways than one.

• Peter Craven’s post talks about J.K. Rowling’s post-Harry Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy. Fans who are expecting more from the wizards’ world may be a little disappointed, but the novel is something worth taking the time to nevertheless.
• As presented in this Stuff.co.nz article, fans of the Lord of the Rings series have gathered in a book fair to celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece, The Hobbit, by dressing like some of the book’s characters.
• In a China.org.cn feature, we see how much a Nobel laureate for Literature can change your book sales overnight. Mo Yan’s books sold like soda in a draught in China following his Nobel recognition.
• Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry and multiple Oscar-winner Richard Taylor talked about the many challenges of creating films out of books. Read more of their woes from this article.
• John Mullan’s presentation discusses author Ian M Banks’ books, his different approach to science fiction, and how structuralism is inaccurately perceived these days.
• Finally, we talk about the growing trend of book and movie tie-ins, the challenges faced by the filmmakers, and how the reading audience cannot seem to be satisfied. Read more from the commentary, “Putting Picture into Words.”

Surely, you have had that friend who says, “It’s no good compared to the book,” every time you watch a film which was based on a novel. For some reason, filmmakers are finding it rather challenging to feed the expectations and satisfy audiences with movie adaptations of books, especially the popular ones.

We’ve all heard it before – the Harry Potter seven-part series creating a degree of discontent on the part of the dedicated bookworms, who seem to be checking on every last detail which was missed – or tweaked – in the movie versions. The Lord of the Rings movie franchise also based its success on the novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, and soon enough, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books faced the same fate. We could go on and on with the number of books turned into movies – The Hunger Games, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and so on. There seems to be a common trend: those who have read the books before watching the movie always feel that the books are way better. Those who have only seen the film version, though, either loved the movie or didn’t “get it.”

This can be trivial to understand for those among us who focus on the literary aspect of the story. In a book, words are very important. Because there aren’t any images and sound to accompany the text, it is all up to the readers’ imagination and interpretation of the story to put a face to the characters, a scenery to the setting, and so on. This could be one common cause of conflict, when what they have perceived goes off in comparison to what they see on the big screen.

If this is not the case, it may be that the audience finds it difficult, if not impossible, to accept that film adaptations are what they are: film adaptations. The filmmakers cannot afford to include every inch of detail as the book has led them to imagine, otherwise the movies would take forever to screen, let alone make. This is a hard thing to accept for fans, but films are based on scriptwriting which was based on the book – there has to be something changed, added, taken out, or modified somewhere along the way. I guess the best way to see it is to have another band cover one of the classic songs originally sung by another artist. The cover band wouldn’t do it in exactly the same way as it was done originally, otherwise there would be no much point.

In the present, many international filmmakers are facing these challenges – to keep the films as loyal to the books as possible, without compromising the movie’s “movie” quality. As they say, you can’t please everyone, but rest assured that the people behind the camera are doing the best that they can to please as many people as possible. In this interview, some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of today explain these challenges that they go through.

Ian M Banks’ new novel, The Use of Weapons, showcases his different take on what we have come to understand about science fiction. He has been acclaimed for his works, both on the fictional and the literary end. Banks says that these two separate identities have helped in inspiring some of his best works, including his very first book – The Wasp Story. Learn more about Banks’ concepts of science fiction and why most of us misconceive structuralism for what it really is from John Mullan’s presentation.

Book and movie tie-ins are very popular these days. It is not surprising, since many of the most interesting stories and plots come from acclaimed novels. In an interview, filmmakers from all over the world talk about what challenges come their way when transforming a literary masterpiece into a good movie. Read more about what Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry and multiple Oscar-winner Richard Taylor had to say on the topic from this article.

Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel laureate for Literature – the biggest recognition that any writer and author could ever dream of in a lifetime. Incidentally, even just a day after the award was given, bookstores in China ran out of Mo’s books. Customers could only stare at the empty bookshelves and wait for the next batch to arrive. Read more about Mo Yan’s success and how the locals are finding it hard to get hold of his books from a China.org.cn feature.

Undoubtedly, J.R.R. Tolkien has some of the most dedicated and expressive fans ever. Fans gathered in a book fair to celebrate the book and – most of all – the characters from The Hobbit. Fans dressed up as characters from the The Lord of the Rings series to the best of their abilities. Take a look at some of these impressions captured in photos from a Stuff.co.nz article.

The author of the internationally-acclaimed Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling, has recently released her non-magical novel, “The Casual Vacancy.” The book is – in comparison to the previous seven-part phenomenon – a lot more mature and deals with more serious issues. Rowling has written a 500-paged social-realist masterpiece that is creating a division among fans and critics. Find out more about her new novel from Peter Craven’s post.

We talk about the book titles to watch out for over the next couple of days, as well as the [what seems to be] never-ending discussion on print versus digital book formats. Here are our covered stories for you to dig in:

• Beth Wischmeyer’s post shares a few highlights on the recent Festival of Books in South Dakota, where readers and authors alike had some time to mingle with everyone and talk about writing and literature.
• Lynn Neary’s post gives another reason why there are certain situations where digital forms cannot outperform print books’ possibilities, especially in capturing the young minds’ imaginations.
• Madeleine Crum’s article proposes a modern twist of a list that should be taught in high school literature classes. Will Haruki Murayami be able to replace F. Scott Fitzgerald?
• Here is the list that every book worm looks forward to, week after week. See which of the new book releases has made it to the list of the hottest and worthy titles for early October.
• David Appell’s post talks about his personal insights on the importance and the remaining value of print books over Kindles and other e-book readers.
• We finally close this round of stories with a discussion on digital and print books. In the modern age, what reasons do readers have to keep print books in circulation? Read more from the commentary, “On Papyrus.”